2000 Acura Integra - The Absolute Best

900WHP K-Series Integra

900 WHP
600 LB-FT Of Torque
It's no secret that competition fuels the autosport hobby. In a world where tens of thousands of guys with busted knuckles and dirt under their fingernails spend every waking moment in pursuit of being faster than they were yesterday-working sh*t jobs to pay off turbos and suspensions, waking up in the middle of the night with the solution to a cooling problem, and evolving their rides into examples of mechanical domination with every breath-there's always someone faster. Unless you're Norris Prayoonto.

Prayoonto manages four Honda-powered drag cars for a living. If you've ever seen a white Honda Insight dealing death to the team on the other side of the tree at an NHRA event, he's the guy. Needless to say, he and his team know how to pull serious power out of Honda mills, so when he got it in his head to build the ultimate street-trim Integra, the guys didn't question him, they just built the car. The product isn't just fast, its mind boggling. With over 900 screaming ponies and more than 600 lb-ft of torque lunging out of the four-cylinder, the car is a force of nature.

Of course, it didn't start that way. The '00 Acura came to Prayoonto Racing as a cast off from a disbanded race team. In just three months the guys would convert the car from a throwaway chassis into a record-breaking mammoth, picking up sponsors and dropping over $60,000 into the rig in the process. This is no backyard hack job. This is the big time.

With such a short time frame to get the car rolling, the team split up and tackled as much of the project at the same time as possible. While a few guys jumped on stripping the car down for paint, the rest of the team started tearing down the K24A out of a TSX Prayoonto had lined up to power the beast. Using a Brian Crower crankshaft coupled Crower steel rods, the guys used the Prayoonto shop to top the assembly off with JE 10:1 pistons and rings.

Certain that the bottom end wasn't going anywhere, they turned their attention to the head. After some serious porting, the guys dropped 30mm intake and 36mm exhaust Supertech valves and springs in their homes, controlled by a set of IPS cams. Supertech retainers and keepers help the system stay in one piece. With the head squared away, the guys opened up the K-series' windpipe with an IPS intake and manifold to eliminate any and all restrictions.

Talk to either Prayoonto or his driver, Jonathan Reynolds, and they'll refer to this Integra as "the turbo car," and for good reason. It uses an epic Garrett GT 4294 to shove 40 pounds of boost down the K24A's throat. The big daddy Garrett breathes through custom piping fabbed up by the shop, fed through a Precision intercooler. A TiAL 44mm wastegate keeps things even while TiAL blow-off valves makes sure nothing goes boom under the Integra's hood.

With all that boost, the team knew they were going to have to work to keep fuel up to pace with the engine's needs. They solved the problem with a Weldon fuel pump that gushes go-juice to the 1,600cc/min RC injectors through a Weldon fuel pressure regulator.

Exhaust duty fell to a tubular manifold that slips down onto huge, 4-inch-diameter Prayoonto exhaust. The team has to be careful not to lose children down the thing before a race-the tubing is just that cavernous.

The team slapped their miracle mill onto a PPG four-speed dog box, complete with a clutch, pressure plate, and flywheel served up by sponsor Clutchmaster. The trick tranny uses a Quaife helical limited slip to ensure both front wheels get their fare share of the 900 ponies pouring out of the 2.4 liter.

With the drivetrain squared away, the guys sent the car off to Mike Gerber in Sterling, Virginia, to handle setting up the car's suspension. Gerber laid an Omni Power coil set up on the Integra to help keep the front wheels planted during launches down the quarter, and his work has paid off for Prayoonto. The Omni pieces make sure the 13x8 Bogarts wrapped in über-sticky 24.5x9x13 Mickey Thompsons grab the pavement with ultimate force. Out back, super-skinny 15x3.5 Bogart wheels carry Mickey Thompson 22x4.5x15s across the finish line.

Prayoonto, Reynolds, and the rest of the team knew the car was going to be fast. The horsepower numbers had put the team in the history books before the car ever touched the tarmac. No one had managed to squeeze that much power out of the untested K platform before, let alone try to compete with it. Prayoonto admits there were a few setbacks at the beginning. "No one else was making this kind of power," he says. "We blew up about five engines the first year, but this one seems to be holding together."

No joke. The guys have campaigned through 11 races this year on the same mill, winning nine of them. Reynolds will be the first to tell you one of the losses could be chalked up to driver error. While the fact that the motor refuses to detonate is miraculous enough, last November the team took their place at the top with a run at Maryland International Raceway, landing a 9.14-second run down the quarter at 164 mph in a full-interior Integra.

NASA is checking into how the team has managed to bend space-time to make that possible, but Prayoonto has decided the car has more in it. "I want to see an 8-second run by the end of this year," he says. "Maybe by mid-next year." Reynolds, who started out mopping the floors at Prayoonto's first shop, has no doubt in his mind the car can do it. "Norris wants to turn it up every time," he says. "As long as the track is right and the temperature is good, I can see the car making it."

If you've ever felt like you missed out as the B-series evolved into the legend of Honda tuning it is today, you're in luck. The Prayoonto team is pushing the limits of the newest generation-H platform with every run. If you want to catch the car make history, show up for the next race. Our bets say you won't be disappointed.